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IHS Administers Tripod Survey

By Rachel Z.

The Tripod survey, which aims “to document attitudes, perceptions, experiences, and practices” in classrooms (according to its website, www.tripodproject.org), was administered for the third time at IHS on May 15. Students took the survey in their second- and seventh-period classes.

The survey is based on research on achievement gaps by Harvard professor Ronald Ferguson. It has been funded by a grant that is “designed to encourage the school ... to survey its students on their perceptions of their education,” said IHS Principal Joe Wilson. The district chose this survey in particular because other schools with similar demographics had worked with Ferguson for many years to address their own achievement gaps. “We’re doing it to meet the [Ithaca City School District’s] equity goal,” Wilson explained. The survey has previously been administered at IHS in both the spring and fall of 2006.

Ferguson’s research focuses on “what goes on in the classroom that will positively affect the learning of historically underserved groups of students,” said Wilson.